


Til death do us part

by Raspberyl



Category: Skullgirls
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-16 13:22:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4626786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raspberyl/pseuds/Raspberyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never leave thinking to Beowulf: Even when Cerebella's going on a jealousy-fueled temper tantrum, she still finds decisions that are saner than the ones he suggests. Beowulf/Cerebella, college AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Til death do us part

"I can't believe her!"

"Bella..."

"Right in front of us! Students!"

"Hey, you're all adults, you can handle that stuff."

Cerebella turned around as soon as he closed the door to his office, then started hitting him with the towel she was carrying in her hand.

"Stop... de... fending... her!"

"Ow, ow, ow, hey, hey, hey!"

Beowulf grabbed her wrist and when she looked up at him to try and glare a hole into his skull, he placed a thumb right between her furrowed eyebrows.

"You gotta chill."

Her eyes wavered, then she looked down to the floor, pouting.

"I... I just..."

Then, she looked up once more and resumed:

"I just...hate... her... so... much!"

"Ow, ow—Okay, fine, that's fine, but I ain't her so you gotta stop taking it out on me!"

With a frustrated sigh, she finally listened to her boyfriend's fair plea and stepped away, only to start walking in circles as she found herself unable to come up with another outlet for her anger.

"She's so shameless... You can't just waltz in the middle of practice and start flirting with the coach! And she's a professor, no less—Aren't there rules against that stuff!?" He opened his mouth to answer, but she spoke up again before he could say anything. "And wasn't it obvious enough you weren't into her, anyway!? You should just tell her to stop bothering you straight to her face and be done with it!"

"But I did! I already told her like ten times to back off because I wasn't interested!" He explained, and Cerebella stomped her foot, frustrated.

"And she still bothers you!? I can't believe her!"

"Well... there are _some_ people who can't take no for an answer when it comes to this stuff." He said in an accusing tone that proved to be too subtle as it went completely unnoticed by her, too focused on her own angry ranting to analyze his words any further:

"Ugh, that unacceptable! If people tell you they're not interested then they're not interested and that's it! Honestly, women like her should learn to respect other's boundaries—!"

"Hey, hey, hey, pot callin' the kettle black, Bella."

With those sharper, clearer words, she finally stopped turning around like a dog chasing its tail to look up at him, and blinked in confusion. It didn't take her long to figure out what he was trying to say, though, and as soon as she did, she raised her towel again.

"Ow!"

Beowulf protected himself against yet another vicious attack, a haughty huff coming from Cerebella once she was satisfied with his punishment.

"That was different—I _knew_ you had a thing for me! You _wanted_ me to keep going."

"There was no freakin' way you could tell that for sure, though, and you still kept going, just like her!" She rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips.

"Listen, big guy, I know you don't wanna believe it, but you're a terrible liar and an even worse actor. The way you rejected me was different from the way you rejected her—You wanted it, and I knew it."

"... Tch." 

Beowulf crossed his arms grumpily but didn't argue back; He _was_ dating Cerebella, after all, so it wasn't like he could really deny he had wanted her to keep flirting with him until she broke down his shoddy defenses back then.

"You said you had told her before that you weren't interested..." She mumbled after a moment. "Has she done this before?"

"Flirting? Oh yeah, tons of times. I always turn her down, though." He added quickly to not awaken her anger again—The towel itself was pretty soft, but Bella's fist weren't.

"For how long?"

"'guess around the time we met... or maybe later?" He grumbled, unsure. "'Don't remember that well. But it had to be a while after I met you, at least, 'cause I already liked you when she first asked me out and I told her thanks, but no thanks."

"... You rejected her even before we were dating?" Cerebella tilted her head, and he shrugged.

 "Yeah. 'Didn't feel right, you know... goin' out with other people when all I was gonna do was think about you and nothing else."

Caught off guard by his unexpectedly sweet words, she went quiet, her eyes on his until she finally had to look down, smiling.

"I see."

"What?" He grinned at her sudden sheepish demeanor. "'You embarrassed?"

"... 'm not."

"Oooho." He didn't buy it for a second, sneaking his arms around her and kissing her cheek before singing against her skin: "'You embaaarrasseeed."

"No, you doofus—I'm just happy... But—No, I'm—I'm still mad—Let me go...!"

He laughed against her face and it was so contagious that Cerebella couldn't resist giggling as well, her bronze cheeks flushing with delight. Beowulf rained kisses on her face and lips then, making loud, smacking sounds as he traveled down her neck, her anger diminishing with each new patch of skin his mouth touched.

"I still..." Bella said, then stopped, interrupted by a gasp forcing its way out of her lips when he kissed her pulse. "I still don't like that even after all this time she's still going after you, though... She's—She's way too persistent."

"So what?" He kissed her neck again. "I'm just as stubborn as her. I'll tell her no until it gets through to her that I ain't interested."

"But... I... I still don't like it, I mean..."

"... What?"

As her tone became serious, Beowulf halted his pampering and straightened up, yet she avoided his eyes. He made a questioning noise to encourage her and Cerebella pouted, as if being asked to confess a shameful secret of hers, and he had to press his index finger against her cheek to prompt her to finally spit it out:

"Just... what if... what if she tries doing something more than just asking you out?" 

"Like what?"

She sighed.

"... Like… Like what I used to do, Beowulf."

"Oh." He didn't have to ask exactly what did she mean in that respect— _Everything_ she did to him back then bordered on sexual harassment, and it was only because he liked her that Cerebella managed to get away with it. He smiled a little as he reminisced, but she didn't, her expression growing worried instead.

"Yeah, what... what if she tries kissing you or something like that..."

"Then I'll just push her away." He said flatly, and Bella shook her head.

"No, I... Still, I don't like it. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't...I—Hmhmph... hmpph...!"

She continued her whining in his chest as his hand pressed her face against it until she finished her temper tantrum. Once she quieted down, Beowulf let go of her head, and he heard her voice one last time, muffled by his shirt:

"I don't."

"Listen..." 

He paused, suddenly put in a position that was a little uncomfortable: Usually Cerebella was the reasonable one of the two, but with her mind on the 'I want to kill that woman' zone, it was on Beowulf to try and find a proper, non-homicidal solution to their problem. It was damn difficult, though: being rational wasn't exactly his forte, so he had to think about their options for a good while before speaking up again.

"I've... uh, I've been as blunt with this chick as I can—I've told her reeeaally clearly to stay away a bunch of times, and she ain't backing down. So, uh... I... I guess the only reasonable thing to do to make her stop asking me out is..." He scratched his head. "... telling her I'm in a _really_ serious relationship... I guess? I mean, I know that would stop me, and it's not like I'd be lyin', either."

"But... you can't do that. You'll get fired if she finds out you're dating a college student, it's against the rules."

"Well, I... can just not tell her that part." Cerebella raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

"... But how are you gonna make her believe you? I know I wouldn't right away, not if I don't know exactly who you're dating."

"Yeah, 'guess you're right..." He let out an annoyed sigh, feeling a headache coming—That's what thinking way too hard got him. "Can't... can't I just punch her, instead?” He asked, exasperated. “That would get the message across really damn clearly, I think." Bella burst into laughter, and shook her head from side to side. 

"This isn't the WWE, Beowulf—Not to mention I'm sure it would make them fire you for assaulting a colleague... _I_ could punch her, though."

"... Preeetty sure that would make everyone suspicious and get me fired, too. And you, expelled."

"Tch." She clicked her tongue, then muttered under her breath. "And I was kinda digging the idea, too."

"Easy, Bella."

"Don't give me that, you came up with the idea in the first place!" 

"... Man..."

They both sighed at the same time, lamenting that in this particular situation, they couldn't solve their problem with their favorite solution.

Not like they _ever_ got any problems solved with wrestling, though.

"I guess we're going back to the 'really serious relationship' idea. The problem is how to prove it."

"Yeah... Hm."

He took another minute to think (and his headache grew stronger as a result—he really had to do that _less,_ ) and in between a myriad of crazy ideas that included hiring a hooker to pretend to be his girlfriend to asking Annie to pretend to be his daughter, there was one idea that stuck with him—An idea that wasn't as crazy as the others and that he had mulled over more than once... And that was also the one that made the most sense, actually.

Not really the easiest to put on the table, however.

"What?" She asked, looking at his face carefully and noticing his bewilderment suddenly vanish. "Thought of something?"

Beowulf cleared his throat nervously.

"I... I can just... dunno..."

"You can what?"

"Wear... y'know."

He put his index finger and thumb together and then thrust his ring finger in the space left between them, and Cerebella's eyes widened.

"O-Oh...! You... You mean wearing a ring and pretending you're engaged?"

"Yeah... though, I guess..."

"What?"

"I... I guess... maybe not just pretend?"

He felt her stiffen up against him, and suddenly, it felt hard to swallow.

"... Whuh... What..."

"I mean, uh, what if we just... do that. Get engaged."

"What!?" She squeaked, and Beowulf felt his own cheeks grow a little hot as a bright hue of red spread across her entire face.

"What!" He repeated, crossing his arms on his chest defensively when Cerebella let go of him to walk a couple of steps backwards. "I mean—It's fine, ain't it!? We've—We've been seeing each other for a year, and you're gonna graduate in half a year, too! And I sure as hell am not planning to break up with you, so we might as well!"

"Y-You—Beowulf, you do realize what you're doing, right—?" 

"Of course I freakin' do, I'm not an idiot! I'm—I'm proposing to you!"

With those words, Cerebella had to walk another couple of steps backwards until her the back of her thighs met the edge of his desk. She plopped on it, and Beowulf would've been worried if he hadn't caught a glimpse of a little nervous smile when she hid her face in her hands.

"Oh boy." Her voice came out weak and shaky, and she had to take a long, deep breath to keep it steady when she spoke up again: "Y'know, I can't believe you're doing this, but somehow, it also makes perfect sense for someone like you to just propose out of the blue, without a ring, and in a gym storage room turned into an office."

"Well, I can do it all fancy if you wanna..." Beowulf mumbled, scratching the back of his head. She chuckled and shook her head.

"No. I like it better this way." 

"'You sure? 'Cause I can save up to buy you a ring—You're gonna have to wait, though."

"Nah. C'mere, champ."

She gestured for him to come closer and reached for his face, making him lean down so she could place a soft kiss on the corner of his lips. When she allowed him to pull away, he grinned, and placed his hand on her smaller one.

"'That a yes?"

Cerebella rolled her eyes. "No, I'm actually breaking up with you." Her sarcastic reply made Beowulf frown, yet it didn't last, an impish grin flourishing on his lips a second after.

"'That so? 'Guess I better give that lady a chance then—"

"DON'T YOU DARE."

He guffawed when she slapped his arm, and though she was trying her hardest to pretend to be angry, her facade didn't last, breaking into loud laughter when his hands sneaked to those places he knew made her ticklish. As her weak point was being attacked, Bella lowered her guard and ended up being easily pushed onto the desk, and she began pecking his lips whenever his face was close enough to hers. He replied to every single one, and soon enough, tickling lost priority to kissing, their mouths locked together until they finally ran out of air and had to pull apart , panting and sharing the same goofy smile.

"... I... I ain't leaving you, aight?" He muttered. "Not ever. I love ya." 

"Not even for that woman?"

"No way in hell."

"Good choice." She kissed him one more time, then smiled smugly. "'Sides, with her, you won't be getting this."

 "Whoa!"

Cerebella pushed him off to the side, reverting their positions in less than a second as she straddled him, taking his shirt off in the process with a swift, calculated pull and throwing it over the chair in front of his desk along with hers. She leaned over him then, gently pressing herself against his rising chest, before sliding off his body, her mouth leaving a wet path from his neck to his lower belly.

"Fuck, Bella..." She hummed happily as she grabbed the edge of his shorts with her teeth, carefully dragging them down to expose a little more of his midriff. "You—You do know this ain't why I'm with you, right?"

"Oh, I know. But it's a bonus." He laughed heartily. 

"It sure is."

"And speaking of bonus—I think I found mine."

"Whoa—'kay...!" She couldn't help but giggle, amused at his reaction to her hand sneaking down his underwear,  his whole body tensing up. "'You sure _that's_ not the only reason you wanna marry me?"

"Oh yeah, this is the only reason I'm marrying you. This, and your nice butt." 

"Heh. Damn right I've got a sweet ass! You’re a lucky girl, let me tell ya."

Cerebella snickered, then gave her fiancé a loving smile.

"I sure am."


End file.
